Kazuko Matsuo -- Ammore Mio（アモーレ・ミオ）

 

In the first couple of decades following World War II when the people of Japan were starting to freely learn about the world again, the music industry there was just as much into covering the hits from overseas as they were producing the homegrown genres such as enka and Mood Kayo. Jazz and rockabilly became popular and then the 60s teenage idols were doing their versions of some of those American smashes such as Yukari Ito（伊東ゆかり）and Mieko Hirota（弘田三枝子）. However, there was also the growing love for French chanson spearheaded by singers like Fubuki Koshiji（越路吹雪）.

Italy was also another country whose music was of interest to Japanese listeners. I remember putting up an article on "Una Sera di Tokyo" （ウナ・セラ・ディ東京）originally by The Peanuts（ザ・ピーナッツ） which was actually a homegrown song, but it took the performance of Italian singer Milva, known as the Queen of Canzone, to take this ballad by Tokiko Iwatani and Hiroshi Miyagawa（岩谷時子・宮川泰）into the stratosphere.

However, the article this time around is for a cover of an actual Italian song "Ammore Mio" (My Love) which was first recorded by singer/actress Ornella Vanoni in 1964 and composed by Carlo Donida. The 1965 cover was performed by the late Kazuko Matsuo（松尾和子）who stamped herself into Mood Kayo legend due to her 1959 duet with Frank Nagai（フランク永井）in "Tokyo Nightclub"（東京ナイトクラブ）. Although the lyrics were changed into Japanese by Hiroshi Arakawa（あらかわひろし） with an arrangement by Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）, the title remained intact.

For some reason, Matsuo's cover isn't listed in her J-Wiki discography perhaps because her version shared the vinyl single with the vocal Royal Knights with their "Angelita"（アンジェリータ）. In any case, both Matsuo and Vanoni share a smoky delivery, although I think that Hattori's arrangement has a slightly more American pop ballad sense to it along the lines of what I've heard from Connie Francis.

(19:45)